The Photonics Institute is the culmination of intense preparatory work spanning several years between NTU and the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton,along with support from various institutions such as A*STAR, DSO and EDB, in order to establish in Singapore a world-leading centre in photonics technology research.

Representing the next phase of the trend for globalisation of research, the newly-established institute will be led by a triumvirate of world-class directors, namely Professor Sir David Payne, Professor Tjin Swee Chuan and Professor Nikolay Zheludev, consolidating fragmented centres of excellence at NTU in relation to research under photonics. At present, 5 key centres come under the umbrella of this institute: